what impedes your train watching ?

[rixflix]

My commute

I try to time my departure from work to coincide with a Metro train going up the hill from Rhode Island avenue to Fort Totten and always stand near the rear. MARC sends it's 4:50 train on the same timing and there's often a race. A shabby sort of fix, I guess, but I'm going up to Reading for Christmas and might be able to persuade my (railroad indifferent) son to make a railfanning diversion.

RIXFLIX

aka Captin Video

[jeaton]

Being retired means that I have a good deal of discretionary time to travel 30 or more miles to watch trains on a busy piece of railroad.  For that activity, I get impeded by blizzards with 14 degree temperatures and 30 MPH winds making the wind chill a -7.

No big deal-trains will be there in May when the weather is nicer.

Special railroad type events-those on a scheduled day-are a different story.

The following were impediments in this year alone.

1.  "Couples" wedding shower, the groom being the son of my wife's very best friend.  (Even the groom asked about that.)

2.  The wedding of the afore mentioned couple.

3.  Looking after my 93 year old mother while my brother and sister-in-law took a much deserved vacation.

4.  Jury duty.

5.  Family gathering (out of town guests) for my mother-in-laws birthday,

2008 will be a good year.

 

[zardoz]

The potential for harrassment from those that "serve and protect" us.

[Anonymous]

OOO tracks!

Get camera out and shoot.

Hopefully far enough away from anyone 5 minutes walk... always one "Whatcha doing" destroying the sound track.

Shoot said train early in the morning when everyone is in bed.

Never shoot twice in 30 days from the same spot.

There is one hobby shop next to the UP Main, no impedes there except obnoxious loud car steros blasting gangsta noise.

I like to shoot where I only see birds or hear crickets. Hopefully that tripod will reassure the engineer and Fireman that I dont intend to write "Good bye cruel world" and end it all.

 

UP 844 Mabelvale Arkansas Short Edit
 http://img532.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shorter844editfinalmabeaw7.flv

100 Cars in the Morning.
 http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/4876/100carsupfinalff9.flv

Pacer North
 http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/8413/pacernorthfinalyw5.flv

Southbound Final
 http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/8121/southboundfinallg6.flv

Enjoy

[SealBook27]

   Got to do my trainwatching on the job.  For the last two years, my afternoon shift was driving a city bus route which crossed two grade crossings every half hour.

   The impediment:  It was always, always, always the SAME TRAIN! 

[chefjavier]

We just moved a few miles from the rails to a condo three blocks from a rr crossing on the CN line between Toronto & North Bay.      I thought this was great.     We are on the 4th floor of a condo & hear the train whistle blowing for another crossing about a mile away.      Rush out of our unit, take elevator 4 floors down, rush across the parking lot,   run down the street, but by that time the engines have long past & I have to be content with watching 120 freight cars

Worse still when walking our dog, lights flashing for the crossing, so I start to rush,    Dog needs to piddle, but before it does, it has to find a spot in the snow when a previous dog has done its business,     this takes time.     Dog poops & I have to pick it up in my poop bag and start for the tracks,  but noooo  Noelle has to piddle....  Result   another train missed.

Next problem    Christmas coming,    Have to help the dear wife with Christmas wrapping, cleaning house,  help with the baking,  sending out cards, etc. etc.   Don't get me wrong,  I love my wife but ......

We have a balcony a from which I can see the trains. but with the long hours of darkness now all I see are silhouettes of the trains.

What impedes me from watching trains is the kitchen. Keeping a functional kitchen takes alot of hours of supervision. Yes, I am Executive Chef and the hours are long but the food is awesome!

[spokyone]

no trains!

Tracks all gone now.

[Krazykat112079]

At work I only get a 20 foot view between 2 buildings to an industrial spur (CN almost daily, usually an IC geep), but that is out the front window and I work in the back office.

At home, I face opposite from the tracks and I don't trust the back stairs of the apartment building to run down them.  If I move the second I hear a horn, I can catch the tail end of the autoracks flying through town.

It sure would be nice, if I had the money, to spend time outside the Chicago & Northern Illinois area doing some train watching. 

[sovablunt]

 Not much impedes it here. Newton, KS home of the Newton High "Railers"

I work for a track building company which is in between 2 BNSF lines and a UP line beside. Our plant is right next to a BNSF yard, so the switcher is practically in the plant all day long. Right now, I'm even at my in laws' house which is about 75 feet away from the main line through town. Oh yeah, the Southwest Chief stops at our station which is exactly 5 blocks from my house. Some of you guys need to move here.

[Anonymous]

Noice!

Ive already seen the Glory down at Harpers Ferry on the B&O line. A cookie for you if you can find it lol.

[arkansasrailfan]

get a scanner, it'll end all your troubles. they tell what's coming your way.

What type of radio you recommend? What channel do I need to know for my area?

they have scanners at radio shack, they have low-cost(repeating my dad's experince)

UP's you should scan in the 140s, but i'll check, and KCSs is 160-162.999,BNSF-180s or 190s, but I should have by tomorrow the right channel(KCS is right one)

[jeaton]

 Not much impedes it here. Newton, KS home of the Newton High "Railers"

I work for a track building company which is in between 2 BNSF lines and a UP line beside. Our plant is right next to a BNSF yard, so the switcher is practically in the plant all day long. Right now, I'm even at my in laws' house which is about 75 feet away from the main line through town. Oh yeah, the Southwest Chief stops at our station which is exactly 5 blocks from my house. Some of you guys need to move here.

Been there 30 years ago -couple of days visiting ex's relatives.  Kind of flat, but otherwise OK.  Went through on the Chief a few years back. Slept through the town both ways. 

[chefjavier]

get a scanner, it'll end all your troubles. they tell what's coming your way.

What type of radio you recommend? What channel do I need to know for my area?

they have scanners at radio shack, they have low-cost(repeating my dad's experince)

UP's you should scan in the 140s, but i'll check, and KCSs is 160-162.999,BNSF-180s or 190s, but I should have by tomorrow the right channel(KCS is right one)

Thanks for the info. I am trying to get the UP frequency for Texas. Do you know where I can find the exact frequency?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Work and family responsibilities.  I get a bit of a break on work since I ride Metra's Southwest Service (ex-WAB) to and from work and I get to do a fair amount of train watching from the upper level of a gallery coach.

[CNW 6000]

Work and a list of to-dos that seemingly can't wait.  It gets frustrating...but the trains are there when I'm done.

[SilverSpike]

Timing is everything!

I live about 2 miles from the CSX line that cuts through Wake Forest and twice a day around 9:00 AM and between 5-6:00 PM there is a local that pulls through with about 20 +/- rolling stock of lumber, covered hoppers and gons. I can hear the whistle from the house, but without a scanner I can't get down there in time to see em unless I position myself at the downtown square and sit and wait. As I said, timing!

One morning I sat at the gazebo and waited and then got lucky when this showed up....

And then I following it for a few miles....

 

[n012944]

Trees. In the winter I can see the CSX Garret sub from my window.  However once the trees fill in during the spring, well

[tree68]

Barring someone with first hand knowledge replying here, try to Google "Texas Scanner", or "your city scanner", or possibly "your city" or "Texas frequencies."  Searching for "railroad radio" and variations can also be productive.  I usually find what I'm looking for, and I travel enough to want to find local frequencies for my destinations.  You might have to sort through some garbage, but you'll also find local emergency services frequencies, plus taxis, utilities, fast-food drive throughs, etc and so on.  Gives you something to listen to if you're not watching trains.

Here's a site I just found that has information for the Gulf area:

http://www.fl9.com/frequencydb/

Here's a somewhat dated but generally comprehensive national list of frequencies by railroad

http://zippy.ci.uiuc.edu/~roma/rr-freqs/index-old.html

If your scanner is capable, just put in the entire gamut of AAR frequencies (just under 100 of 'em).  Local interference notwithstanding, that way you can listen virtually everywhere.  Here's a site with that information:

http://www.on-track-on-line.com/scanner-radio.shtml

The AAR frequences are all in the 160-161 Mhz range.  EOTs are usually UHF (400's, IIRC), although I think NS uses some in the 160 range.  EOT's can be useful if you are in an area with little call for voice communication between train and dispatcher, but are pretty superfluous otherwise.  All you'll hear is an occasional chirp as the EOT tells the head-end device about changes/status, but if you don't have anything else (like a defect detector) to go by, you'll at least know a train may be near.

[chefjavier]

Barring someone with first hand knowledge replying here, try to Google "Texas Scanner", or "your city scanner", or possibly "your city" or "Texas frequencies."  Searching for "railroad radio" and variations can also be productive.  I usually find what I'm looking for, and I travel enough to want to find local frequencies for my destinations.  You might have to sort through some garbage, but you'll also find local emergency services frequencies, plus taxis, utilities, fast-food drive throughs, etc and so on.  Gives you something to listen to if you're not watching trains.

Here's a site I just found that has information for the Gulf area:

http://www.fl9.com/frequencydb/

Here's a somewhat dated but generally comprehensive national list of frequencies by railroad

http://zippy.ci.uiuc.edu/~roma/rr-freqs/index-old.html

If your scanner is capable, just put in the entire gamut of AAR frequencies (just under 100 of 'em).  Local interference notwithstanding, that way you can listen virtually everywhere.  Here's a site with that information:

http://www.on-track-on-line.com/scanner-radio.shtml

The AAR frequences are all in the 160-161 Mhz range.  EOTs are usually UHF (400's, IIRC), although I think NS uses some in the 160 range.  EOT's can be useful if you are in an area with little call for voice communication between train and dispatcher, but are pretty superfluous otherwise.  All you'll hear is an occasional chirp as the EOT tells the head-end device about changes/status, but if you don't have anything else (like a defect detector) to go by, you'll at least know a train may be near.

Larry:

Thanks for the Information. I will let you know on the status..

[arkansasrailfan]

get a scanner, it'll end all your troubles. they tell what's coming your way.

What type of radio you recommend? What channel do I need to know for my area?

they have scanners at radio shack, they have low-cost(repeating my dad's experince)

UP's you should scan in the 140s, but i'll check, and KCSs is 160-162.999,BNSF-180s or 190s, but I should have by tomorrow the right channel(KCS is right one)

Thanks for the info. I am trying to get the UP frequency for Texas. Do you know where I can find the exact frequency?

I believe other posters have answered your questioin

[chefjavier]

get a scanner, it'll end all your troubles. they tell what's coming your way.

What type of radio you recommend? What channel do I need to know for my area?

they have scanners at radio shack, they have low-cost(repeating my dad's experince)

UP's you should scan in the 140s, but i'll check, and KCSs is 160-162.999,BNSF-180s or 190s, but I should have by tomorrow the right channel(KCS is right one)

Thanks for the info. I am trying to get the UP frequency for Texas. Do you know where I can find the exact frequency?

I believe other posters have answered your questioin

Yes, they did answer my question. Thanks for following up! I am thinking buying pro97 scanner from Radio Shack.

[Krazykat112079]

For me today, it was being buckled inside a freezing car with frosted windows and having only 3 seconds head warning.  My car is parked every night facing the Belvidere, IL line in the municipal parking lot just off the ROW.  I was warming it up for the morning commute and I still cannot believe that I did not hear the horn for the previous crossing and only the horn for the crossing a few hundred feet away.  I got to see the train, sort of, since all my windows were frosty, but I am pretty certain that 1995 was running lead.

[Mookie]

The sandbox is about 1.5 miles away.

[espeefoamer]

I have the same problem as the railroad that merged with the Erie in 1960-Lakawampum.

[CShaveRR]

The sandbox is about 1.5 miles away.

That's why we call it "Camp Mookie" instead of "Mookie Park"!

[inch53]

Trees. In the winter I can see the CSX Garret sub from my window.  However once the trees fill in during the spring, well

I've got the same thing here. In the winter I cans see the CSX Indy- St Louis tracks, but in the summer, the trees get those green hangy down things that block most the view, and then they plant corn in the field outback.

At least in the summer I can go over to where we camp, and watch trains with out the view being block to much.

 inch

[Mookie]

The sandbox is about 1.5 miles away.

That's why we call it "Camp Mookie" instead of "Mookie Park"!

It is only the ladies that have the problem.  Some of the gentlemen....well, I won't go there....

[Gambi80]

Lets see here moving to a new house 2 kids one a 4 year old the other one is 8 months old.  Old house was 2 miles away from the old Alton route and the only thing on it was Amtrak for the most part.  New house is 300 feet from the Old RI Chicago to Council Bluffs IA line and I get to see Crash Smash eXplode and Iowa Interstate daily now lus never have to leave my house.  Maybe will post a webcam to show the action.

I'm gonna guess you're around La Salle-Peru...?   

I used to live about a half mile from the IAIS/CSX line also.  A quick ride on the 4-wheeler and I'd be there.  Now its to a different town a few miles away...Illinois Railnet.  Yay. 

But to answer the question...a 3 year old, with another on the way in May and work.  I drive truck for a living though, so sometimes I can deviate from the course and scope out whatever is near.  Both BNSF mainlines and UP are all within a half hour drive, IAIS/CSX and IL Railnet are all nearby.  

 

[rixflix]

Work and drinking. If I can figure out why they go together so well (and I love both) I might find a life.